BBQ restaurant dreams up in smoke

PURCELL, Okla. – Clay and Heidi Vaughn thought the late night phone call was a prank from an old friend.

The caller claimed their new BBQ joint, the Rack Shack, was burning.

Sadly, It was no joke.

Clay said, “When I found out it wasn’t, I flipped out. I was scared to death. We did 90 mph to get there.”

When they got there, the restaurant was still smoldering.

Purcell firefighters spent nearly three hours fighting the stubborn blaze in this old building.

“We knocked down the area where the smoker was, got it pretty much out,” Assistant Chief Greg Cypert said. “Then our focus, it got into the roof in the adjoining building. We cut the roof out and tore the sheet rock to get it out.”

The Vaughns had invested their life savings, thousands of dollars and countless man hours into the Rack Shack.

Heidi told us, “It’s hard. We have everything into it. We worked three months, until 1 a.m. out there, every day after work to get the building like it is. To see it go in 15 minutes was devastating.”

This young couple learned Tuesday the loss won’t be covered.

Their insurance claim was denied because of an undetected crack in the old smoker, the apparent cause of the fire.

It is a stressful time for Clay and Heidi to say the least.

They recently learned a baby is on the way and now the family’s nest egg is gone.

Clay said, “Really heartbreaking, disappointing.”

But they said they believe God has a plan and will rely and their faith and family to see them through.

Heidi said, “We want to reopen. We had a good thing going. This was our dream. We’re just figuring out how that will happen now.”